Cerebrospinal Drainage Not Tied to Multiple Sclerosis

There does not appear to be a cause-effect relationship between chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency and the onset of multiple sclerosis, according to a study published in the January issue of the Annals of Neurology.

FRIDAY, Feb. 11 (HealthDay News) -- There does not appear to be a cause-effect relationship between chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) and the onset of multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a study published in the January issue of the Annals of Neurology.

Claudio Baracchini, M.D., from the University of Padua School of Medicine in Italy, and colleagues examined whether CCSVI was a possible cause of MS. Fifty patients who presented with clinically isolated syndromes and dissemination in space of the inflammatory lesions, suggestive of MS, underwent diagnostic tests, including extracranial and transcranial venous echo-color Doppler sonography (ECDS-TCDS). Patients with CCSVI also had selective venography.

The researchers found that the TCDS was normal in all of the possible MS patients, but 52 percent had one or more abnormal ECDS finding. Sixteen percent of patients fulfilled the diagnosis of CCSVI. Seven of these patients underwent selective phlebography but did not show any venous abnormalities.

"In conclusion, CCSVI is an infrequent condition in pMS [possible MS]; indeed, 84 percent of the patients with pMS did not have it. Moreover, a perfectly normal venous TCDS in all our pMS patients strongly indicates that even in those few patients with a CCSVI pattern the extracranial venousanomalies do not influence cerebral venous hemodynamics," the authors write.

Several of the researchers on this study disclosed financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, and Merck-Serono.